Eucharist

When I hold up the Eucharist and simply say, “the Body of Christ,” I wish it was proper for me also to say, “You are the Body of Christ.”  We all are.  What follows is an adapted extract taken from a talk given by Father Richard Rohr in 2000. I found it to be very useful and on target.

(begin) I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from Heaven so that one may eat it and not die. (John 6:58)

I am the living bread that came down from Heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world. (John 6:51)

The mystery of Eucharist clarifies and delineates Christianity from the other religions of the world. We have many things in common, but Christianity is the only religion that says that God became a human body; God became flesh, as John’s Gospel puts it, (1:14). Our fancy theological word for that is the Incarnation, the enfleshment. It seems that it is much easier for God to convince bread of what it is than for God to convince us. Incarnation is scandalous, shocking — cannibalistic, intimate, sexual!

Jesus did not say, “Think about this;” “Fight about this;” “Stare at this;” but he said, “Eat this!” A dynamic, interactive event that makes one out of two. If we did not have the Eucharist, we would have to create it; sometimes it seems that outsiders can appreciate it more than Christians.

As Gandhi said, “There are so many hungry people in the world that God could only come into the world in the form of food. It is marvelous, that God would enter our lives not just in the form of sermons or Bibles, but in food. God comes to feed us more than just teach us. Lovers understand that.”

When we start making the Eucharistic meal something to define membership instead of to proclaim grace and gift, we always get in trouble; that’s been the temptation of every denomination that has the Eucharist. Too often we use Eucharist to separate who’s in from who’s out, who’s worthy from who’s unworthy, instead of to declare that all of us are radically unworthy, and that worthiness is not even the issue. If worthiness is the issue, who can stand before God? Are those who receive actually saying they are “worthy”? I hope not. It is an ego statement to begin with (my emphasis).

The issue is not worthiness; the issue is trust and surrender or, as Thérèse of Lisieux said, “It all comes down to confidence and gratitude.” I think that explains the joyous character with which we so often celebrate the Eucharist. We are pulled into immense gratitude and joy for such constant and unearned grace.

It doesn’t get any better than this! All we can do at Eucharist is kneel in gratitude and then stand in confidence. (Actually, St. Augustine said that the proper Christian posture for prayer was standing, because we no longer had to grovel before such a God or fear any God that is like Jesus.)

Christ is the bread, awaiting hunger. (Saint Augustine) 

Eucharist is presence encountering presence — mutuality, vulnerability. There is nothing to prove, to protect, or to sell. It feels so empty, naked, and harmless, that all you can do is be present. The Eucharist is telling us that God is the food and all we have to do is provide the hunger. Somehow we have to make sure that each day we are hungry, that there’s room inside of us for another presence (my emphasis).

If you are filled with your own opinions, ideas, righteousness, superiority, or sufficiency, you are a world unto yourself and there is no room for “another.” Despite all our attempts to define who is worthy and who is not worthy to receive communion, our only ticket or prerequisite for coming to Eucharist is hunger. And most often sinners are much more hungry than the “saints.” (end)

This preceding perspective is one we should embrace and share at the upcoming National Eucharistic Revival CTK is following.  From Father Healey we recently read:

(begin) As we continue this year of Eucharistic Revival, Bishop da Cunha has asked that every parish host a formation series on the Eucharist. I would like to invite you to grow closer to Jesus alongside fellow parishioners through the Jesus and the Eucharist study created by the National Revival. This study was specifically designed for this Year of Parish Revival, and we will be joining many other parishes throughout the United States in participating in this small group study as we journey together through this three-year National Eucharistic Revival.

This will be a 7-week journey delving deeper into the source and summit of our faith, the Eucharist. Each session is full of rich theological content, powerful testimonies, and unique and timely messages from individual bishops across the country. This is a great opportunity to dive more deeply into the richness of our Eucharistic faith and share your personal experience and insights on the Eucharist.

Each week, the specific topic will be complete by two one-hour sessions. One in-person at CTK and one via Zoom. The in-person session will take place each Monday night and the Zoom session will take place each Wednesday night. Each starts at 6PM. The sessions will be facilitated by Deacon David Laird. This study will be a special time to grow in community within our parish as we walk this sacred year together. We hope to see you there!

The in-person sessions will take place in the Parish Hall on June 17th, June 24th, July 8th, July 15th, July 22nd, July 29th and August 5th.

The Zoom sessions will take place on June 19th, June 26th, July 10th, July 17th, July 24th, July 31st and August 7th. The link to the Zoom session is shown below. (end)

Deacon David Pierce